Sullivan fire parade fans flames of love

WURTSBORO — Sullivan County firefighters usually battle flames, but on Saturday one volunteer proposed to his.

Adam Bosch

WURTSBORO — Sullivan County firefighters usually battle flames, but on Saturday one volunteer proposed to his.

And she said, "Yes!"

Just after prizes were handed out for cleanest firetruck and best marching company, Wurtsboro firefighter Steven Teller got on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Liz Tucker, in front of more than 1,000 of his fellow volunteers.

It was appropriate for the couple to get engaged at this year's Sullivan County Volunteer Firefighters' Association Parade.

After all, they met at last year's parade, when one of Teller's friends accidentally spilled a drink on Tucker's foot.

"I wiped the drink off her foot and we hit it off," Teller said. "We moved right in together and it's been awesome ever since."

Before the festivities became love struck, Wurtsboro shut down its main artery to honor the roughly 1,300 firefighters, police and volunteer medical technicians who marched down Sullivan Street.

Sullivan firefighters protected their neighbors from a variety of threats over the past year. They fought floods again. They searched for missing people in the woods and water. And they defended houses from a forest fire that burned the very hill that overlooks Saturday's parade.

"They answer calls to children stuck in swings, to lost people, to river rescues," said Jennifer Begbie, who cheered for her husband, Woodridge 1st Assistant Chief David Begbie, as he marched proudly down the street.

All the volunteers fell in line behind Grand Marshall Gordon Piper, who has been a member of the Wurtsboro Fire Department for six decades.

After riding through the crowd of hundreds in an antique fire truck, Piper said there was always one rule to being a good firefighter. It's a simple summation of a difficult job.